Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by Davide Cali and Raphaelle Barbanegre

4 out of 5 stars.

I was given an ARC of this book.

This is bloody adorable! Snow White runs away from the witch, but instead of finding a cottage with 7 dwarfs, she runs into a cottage of 77 dwarfs. Those are a lot of dwarfs to take care of! Since they refuse to help with all the chores, she starts to wonder if there is something more restful she could be doing with her time. Maybe falling asleep isn’t such a bad idea after all…

This book is super colourful. All the dwarves are dressed in a different shade, so every page is glowing with rainbow hues. It is very eye catching. The dwarves are also a little more mischievous than Disney would have us believe. There are scenes where Snow White is trying to get chores done (like beard maintenance) and the dwarves are punching each other (I really love the idea of beard maintenance and the illustration of Snow White brushing a dwarf’s beard is really cute).

The humour of the book will appeal to both parents and kids. Children will get a laugh out of the misbehaving dwarves and adults will love some of the facial expressions (the one where Snow White has obviously just been woken up by 77 dwarves demanding coffee is hilarious. Her face after the dwarves disappear after she asks for help is also a hoot).

This is a great retelling and I love the vibrancy of the illustrations. It has just enough words to be used for story time, so I am off to ask my director to buy it for our library. I know some preschoolers who will love begin read this!